


What He Died For

by creatureofhobbit



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 23:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5946937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Iris finds out that Eobard has returned, she is upset that Eddie died for nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What He Died For

They’d kept it from Iris at first, not wanting to upset her in the aftermath of Francine’s death, her subsequent injury and the fact that she was trying to build a relationship with the brother she only recently found out she had. It had been Cisco who had blurted it out, making some remark to Barry about Eobard Thawne having returned without having realised that Iris had come up behind him.

Caitlin had led Cisco away once he realised what he had done, leaving Iris with Barry and Joe, who had tried to explain why they hadn’t said anything to her before. “We sent him back to his own time, Iris,” Barry had said. “You won’t see him again.”

“But he was never supposed to have existed at all,” Iris pointed out, refusing to be consoled by this. “Eddie killed himself so that his descendant could never have been born. But if he’s managed to come back anyway, then Eddie died for nothing.”

Iris had turned and walked away from them after that, asking them not to follow her. She didn’t want them around her right now, didn’t want to hear any explanations of how Eobard had managed it, didn’t want any comforting words that would never comfort her.

It had been subconscious the day she was telling Wally about Eddie and had described him as her fiancé, and had only been after the words left her mouth that Iris thought about how he technically wasn’t, since she had never formally accepted his proposal. But she thought now that given the chance again, she would have said yes. Eddie may have been aware of some newspaper article in the future written by “Iris West-Allen”, but that didn’t mean anything.

Instead of the future they could have had together, Iris was now left alone, wondering what might have been. If Eddie had known that Eobard was always going to return to existence anyway, he would never have taken his own life, and maybe he and Iris would have been able to work things out.

She felt a tap on her shoulder; it was Barry. Iris didn’t know what he could say to her to make things better, but she also knew that if anyone was ever going to be able to do so, it was going to be him. She’d let him try, but she didn’t know if he could. Eddie was gone, he died for nothing, and no one, not even him, could fix that.


End file.
